War of the Roses sounds like a better title, but this column has nothing to do with roses and everything to do with leaves.

A month ago, I wrote about the benefits that fall leaves have to offer, but I have been away for a while (a little over three weeks to be exact) and when I returned home my house was engulfed in oak leaves. They had started to fall before I left but now the trees are bare and all their leaves are around my house. Large, brown, tough, oak leaves that stick to my dog Lily's fur almost as good as burdock and every time we come inside from playing frisbee, she tracks in more leaves and I get yelled at.

So, with the weather just right on Tuesday it was time to tackle the leaf problem. Now all these leaves have a job to do as I have written about before, and Tuesday's task was mowing and mulching these bad boys to insulate and fertilize my flowerbeds around the house.

So first I had to take down all the deer netting around the house so that I would be able to eventually blow the mulched leaves into the beds. Then I figured while it is nice out, I'll prune some of my bushes that got a little overgrown this summer. Then I cut back some tall, variegated grass that I plan on dividing later this week. I threw all the clippings onto the lawn as it would get mulched too. Then it was time for the mower, the first pass was at the highest setting as some areas had a foot of leaves. Oak leaves being so large, I had to make several passes to get them thoroughly chopped up. Once they were I started from the middle of my yard mowing outward so that when I was done the lawn would be clean and clear of leaves. With each pass the debris was getting smaller, but the amount of leaf debris was so large that I had to only do a half strip at a time.

Finally, after about an hour and a half of mulching and mowing I got the leaf debris into the flowerbeds. Then it was back to putting the deer netting back up because even though many of my shrubs have dropped their leaves already the deer would be in for my evergreens tonight if I didn't have the fence back up right away.

As the leaves decay in my flowerbeds, they will add beneficial nutrients into the soil as well as insulating the ground under them. I have about a sixteen-inch layer of leaves in my flowerbeds right now but that will be reduced to about three inches come springtime. Worms are attracted to the leaves as the soil underneath stays moist and the worms will help break down the leaves as well. Blue mold, similar to that of blue cheese, may start to grow as well and that is a good thing. Not all molds are bad, but it's the bad ones that give all molds a bad reputation. Penicillium molds promote plant growth by phosphate solubilization and nutrient mobilization meaning they help plant roots absorb more nutrients, and they work in harmony with mycorrhizal fungi. So, these leaves do serve a vital purpose but doing all this in one day was a little daunting.

Normally I would work on this type of project over a couple days, but the weather is getting colder quick and there is talk of a possible nor-easter this weekend. So, like the farmer always says, you got to make hay when the sun shines. If I have another day this week, I need to get up on the ladder and blow the oak leaves out on my gutters as well.